Democratic League of Kosovo

The Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK) is a conservative political party in Kosovo that was founded on 23 December 1989. The party was founded by Albanian intellectuals who were opposed to Yugoslav leader Slobodan Milosevic's revocation of Kosovan autonomy in 1989, and the LDK demanded more autonomy and independence. The party was banned by Serbian authorities for its separatist views, but it gained a large following amongst the diaspora, acquiring 700,000 followers in 1991. The party's desire for a peaceful transition of power was crushed by the rise of the Kosovo Liberation Army and the start of the Kosovo War in 1999, and hundreds of its members were tortured, imprisoned, and even killed in secret KLA prisons from 1998 to 2001 for their rivalry with the Democratic Party of Kosovo (PDK). In 2007, the LDK and PDK overcame their differences to form a coalition government, but the LDK left the coalition in 2010, allowing for the liberal PDK to continue leading the country.